Organisers of the Welsh Hill Borders Rally 2022 have chosen the Wales Air Ambulance as its charity to benefit from donations over the three-day event.

The rally will take place between 27-29 May and promises competitors and spectators an exciting event.

There will be approximately 400-450 people visiting Welshpool for the much looked forward to rally including different teams, marshals, and officials. The 60 teams will each comprise of a driver, navigator, and their service crew.

Neil Rogers, from Welsh Hill Borders Rally 2022 is looking forward to the event he said: “The reason I wanted to hold the event was because I live in the area and I hope it will benefit the local community and economy when teams, marshals and officials book accommodation, eat out and generally spend money locally.  

“We have also tried to source any supplies and services for the event locally so overall we estimate that the event will bring in around £100K to local businesses. It is also something new to the area so will generate interest and will hopefully be viewed as something positive.”

The Wales Air Ambulance lifesaving charity has been picked as the only charity for the three-day event. The programme, which has been funded by adverts from local businesses and other agencies, will be free to competitors and spectators. However, it is hoped that people will make a donation, to the Wales Air Ambulance for the programme.

The Wales Air Ambulance will have its own stand during the event and the programmes will be available from the stand. There will also be collection buckets for people to donate, if they wish to.

The Wales Air Ambulance celebrated its 21st anniversary on St. David’s Day 2022. Now operational 24/7, the Charity needs to raise £8 million every year to keep its emergency helicopters flying and its rapid response vehicles on the road. 

Neil added: “As the programme has covered the printing costs, we decided not to charge people for the programme but felt that if people could pick one up from the Wales Air Ambulance stand they could be encouraged to make a donation to the charity. As it may be a service that we may have to call upon at some point, but we hope we never need to, it seemed the perfect choice to give the funds to Wales Air Ambulance.”

Wales Air Ambulance, in partnership with the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service, offers advanced critical care and is often described as a ‘Flying ED’. The on-board consultants and critical care practitioners are highly skilled and carry some of the most pioneering medical equipment in the world. They can deliver blood transfusions, administer anaesthesia, and undertake emergency operations at the scene of the incident, before flying the patient directly to specialist care. 

The event kicks off on the Friday where scrutineering will take place in the Berriew Street/Cowshac car park at approximately 10am to 2pm. Then for the remainder of the day and evening everyone will be at Welshpool Livestock Sales (WLS), in Newtown.

On Saturday the service will be at Britpart Headquarters (the old Laura Ashley site), in Newtown with all the cars returning to WLS later in the evening.

The Sunday service area will be at WLS all day until the event finishes on Sunday afternoon.

Dougie Bancroft, Community Fundraiser for the Wales Air Ambulance, said: “We’re delighted to have been chosen as the only charity to benefit from this exciting three-day event.  Their support of our lifesaving charity is much appreciated. Any donations made during the Welsh Borders Hill Rally 2022 will help us continue to be there for the people of Wales when they need us most and enable our four helicopters to continue to fly and our rapid response vehicles to be on standby 24/7.”

There are several ways that the public can continue to support the Wales Air Ambulance. These include online donations, signing up to the Charity’s Lifesaving Lottery or by coming up with their own innovative ways to fundraise at home. Further information can be found via www.walesairambulance.com.  

Alternatively, a £5 text-message donation can be made by texting the word HELI to 70711.